Baroness Thatcher: Funeral

Lord Wallace of Saltaire: On 25 April 2013 the Cabinet Office published an estimate of the costs of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral, and confirmed that the final amount of public money spent would be published before the summer recess.
	The confirmed costs for the funeral are £261,976, which includes staff overtime, where appropriate. Original estimated costs (from April 2013) were around £500,000.
	The costs for the organisations involved are as follows:
	
		
			 Organisation Cost (£) 
			 Cabinet Office 31,978 
			 City of London Corporation 7,000 
			 Foreign and Commonwealth Office 78,244 
			 Greater London Authority 8,311 
			 London Ambulance Service 20,445 
			 Ministry of Defence 39,057 
			 Parliament 1,700 
			 St Paul’s Cathedral # 67,908 
			 Transport for London 1,000 
			 Westminster City Council 6,333 
		
	
	# these costs were paid for by the Cabinet Office but are listed separately for greater clarity
	The direct policing and security costs for the funeral are £943,833. Original estimated costs (from April 2013) were £1.1 million.
	The costs for each police service involved are as follows:
	
		
			 Police service Cost (£) 
			 British Transport Police 25,233 
			 City of London Police 73,000 
			 Metropolitan Police 845,600 
		
	
	Both figures are the marginal costs, meaning money spent specifically on the funeral, as opposed to costs that would have been incurred in any case.
	No public money was spent on the reception at the Guildhall, which was paid for by the City of London Corporation and not out of public funds.
	Further costs were met by Baroness Thatcher’s estate.

Child Maintenance

Lord Freud: Today I can confirm that the Government is opening up the 2012 child maintenance statutory scheme, administered by the Child Maintenance Service, to a larger group of new applicants.
	This Government is determined to avoid the mistakes of the past, when the 2003 scheme was launched too quickly and for too many clients. Consequently, we have chosen to follow a pathfinder approach to ensure that the 2012 scheme is operating effectively before it is opened to all clients.
	The pathfinder approach works by defining eligibility for the 2012 scheme based on the number of children qualifying for child maintenance who are named in the application. So on 10 December 2012, we opened the scheme to new applicants with at least four qualifying children with the same two parents named in the application. From today, the 2012 scheme will be opened to new applicants with at least two qualifying children with the same two parents named in the application.
	All other applications will continue to be handled under the 2003 scheme rules.

Planning

Baroness Hanham: The Department for Communities and Local Government is today publishing new planning practice guidance for renewable and low carbon energy and, for consultation, reforms to waste planning policy. Both support the Coalition Agreement’s pledge to decentralise power to local people and give local people far more ability to shape the places in which they live. The planning practice guidance and proposed changes to waste planning policy apply to England only.
	Planning for Sustainable Waste Management
	The planning system ensures that there is adequate provision of new waste management facilities of the right type, in the right place and at the right time. Equally, planning policy should protect the local environment and local amenity by preventing waste facilities being placed in inappropriate locations.
	This document will sit alongside the proposed Waste Management Plan for England, which is currently subject to a separate consultation. Waste planning policy was not included in the National Planning Policy Framework.
	The new proposed planning policy document streamlines existing policy, using the same principles as for the National Planning Policy Framework, to make it more accessible to the public and other interested parties. In doing so, it takes account of changes to legislation, such as the removal through the Localism Act of the last administration’s unpopular and top-down Regional Strategies.
	Moreover, this updated policy strengthens protection for the Green Belt. It removes the reference in the current policy that planning authorities should give significant weight to locational needs and wider environmental and economic benefits when considering waste planning applications in the Green Belt. This means that, under national planning policy, these planning considerations should not be given more significant weight compared to others when planning applications are decided for waste facilities in the Green Belt.
	This localist approach brings national waste planning policy into line with the National Planning Policy Framework, which makes clear that most types of new development should only be approved in the Green Belt in very special circumstances, and that Green Belt boundaries should only be altered in exceptional circumstances. This would maintain and enhance the stringent protection against inappropriate development in the Green Belt, in line with the commitment made in the Coalition Agreement.
	Planning for renewable and low-carbon energy
	The National Planning Policy Framework includes strong protections for the natural and historic environment. Yet, some local communities have genuine concerns that when it comes to developments such as wind turbines and solar farms insufficient weight is being given to environmental considerations like landscape, heritage and local amenity. Our new planning practice guidance will help decisions on green energy get the environmental balance right in line with the Framework. Meeting our energy goals should not be used to justify the wrong development in the wrong location.
	A key principle of planning is that it should be genuinely plan-led and empower people to shape their local surroundings. Planning works best when communities themselves have the opportunity to influence the decisions that affect their lives. We have made it plain in the planning practice guidance that the views of local communities should be listened to.
	My right honourable Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Eric Pickles) said in his written statement last month on Local Planning and Onshore Wind that action was needed to deliver the environmental balance expected by the National Planning Policy Framework.
	The preparation of the planning practice guidance has been informed by a wide range of representations that the Government has received on renewable energy, including the letter of January 2012 to the Prime Minister from one hundred Members of Parliament, and responses to the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Call for Evidence on Onshore Wind.
	We are also cancelling today the previous Administration’s ‘Planning for Renewable Energy: A Companion Guide to PPS22’. Those taking planning decisions need to be clear that the need for renewable energy does not automatically override environmental protections and the planning concerns of local communities.
	In preparing the planning practice guidance, we have reflected the recommendations of the External Review of Planning Practice Guidance. Because of the urgent need for new guidance on this issue, we are publishing it in advance of the web-based resource for Government Planning Practice Guidance. That web-based resource will be launched in beta test mode for comment this August.
	Copies of both documents, and associated waste documents, have been placed in the Library of the House.